Chubby, brunette Eunice Kinnison sat in a rocker, reading the Sunday papers and listening to the radio. Her husband Ralph lay sprawled upon the davenport, smoking a cigarette and reading the current issue of EXTRAORDINARY STORIES against an unheard background of music. Mentally, he was far from Tellus, flitting in his super-dreadnaught through parsec after parsec of vacuous space. E.E. "Doc" Smith, Triplanetary, Chapter 5: "1941"

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Galactic Ghost

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is very appropriate for the holiday. Faint clouds have a ghostly appearance; VdB 152 in the constellation of Cepheus. Who you gonna call?

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Tiny Bubbles

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows planetary nebula PK 164 +31.1 (in other words, the Perek & Kohoutek catalog entry number 164, followed by additional information), found in the constellation of Lynx (the Wildcat). Tiny bubble? Only on the scale of the universe at large!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Nebula of the Arachnid Overlords

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day would be a perfect setting for a classic space opera by Jack Williamson. NGC 6537, The Red Spider Planetary Nebula (with amazing structure and detail in its layers).

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Layers Within Layers

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows emission layers around a short-lived (and brightly burning) O-type star within NGC 6164. Take a look, because it'll only be around for a few more million years!

Clark Ashton Smith: The Yellow Sign (Robert W. Chambers); The House of Sounds (M.P. Shiel; The Willows (Algernon Blackwood) A View from a Hill (M.R. James); The Death of Halpin Frayser (Ambrose Bierce); The Fall of the House of Usher (Edgar Allan Poe); The Masque of the Red Death (Edgar Allan Poe); The Novel of the White Powder (Arthur Machen); The Call of Cthulhu (H.P. Lovecraft); The Colour Out of Space (H.P. Lovecraft).

Sidney-Fryer says of Lovecraft's choices "Six of them duplicate Smith's choices, with only four titles different." The four listed above are the "different" but he does not list the "sames". Will have to do some searching!

I'll also have to cross-check this with the titles/authors mentioned in Lovecraft's essay Supernatural Horror in Literature (online versions here and here).

Monday, October 22, 2012

I can't recall exactly where I came across Saladin Ahmed. Facebook? Twitter? His own website? In any case, the description of his first novel, Throne of the Crescent Moon interested me (and has been reviewed here), so I sought out what he had published already. Alas, not much came up, a few short stories, scattered in online magazines and podcasts, but what I read interested me.

This self-published book (eBook only) gathers all of Saladin's short works under one cover. You have two stories set in the same universe as Throne (Where Virtue Lives and Judgment of Swords and Souls), fun in the Old West with a twist or three (Mister Hadj's Sunset Ride), generally twisted humor (General Akmed's Revenge?, Doctor Diablo Goes Through the Motions, Iron Eyes and the Watered Down World), straight-up dystopian apocalyptic cyberpunk (The Faithful Soldier, Prompted) and straight-up fantasy/horror (Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Iameela).

All polished and interesting and with some nice stylistic or plot twists. All showing a level of sophistication and skill higher than most first-time novelists. Would that he typed faster!

Several of these I had read in my previous searches. Doctor Diable Goes Through the Motions was completely new and is a gem. Supervillains trapped in endless Power Point presentations and having their souls sucked away by endless board meetings. And I want to see a novel set in the universe of Iron Eyes and the Watered Down World. Fritz Leiber and Robert E. Howard are sitting in Valhalla, jealous. Oh, so jealous.

Great stuff here. Get thee to your favorite online eBook retailer and buy!

Made up of: Introduction; Author's Note; Where Virtue Live; Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Iameela; Judgment of Swords and Souls; Doctor Diablo Goes Through the Motions; General Akmed's Revenge?; Mister Hadj's Sunset Ride; The Faithful Soldier, Prompted; Iron Eyes and the Watered Down World.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Astronomical Sketch of the Day

While working on a presentation about amateur astronomy for my daughter's Earth Science class (eight periods, I can feel my SAN slipping away now!), I came across a lovely sight dedicated to the art of astronomical sketching. Sketching not only is a great way of recording your observations (at a relatively low cost compared to any photographic outfit), but sketching an object helps you to observe it better.

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33), a dark nebula in the constellation of Orion. I've found this one to be one of the hardest to spot, needing special filters and a dark sky. I've only been sure of spotting it on one occasion.

Smith was a very interesting person and had many talents. Poetry, short fiction, sculpture, drawings, paintings. Alas, I don't know what has happened to most of his art: while you can find pictures of some online, I have a feeling that much of it is sadly lost.

I wonder what he would have produced if his life had been somewhat different: if there had been more (and better paying) markets for his work; if he had not had to care for both of his parents for so long. He was, I think, a better author overall than H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard (sacrilege!). Too brief a candle in our genre world!

Rather than following the stories as they were written (as The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast did), The Double Shadow is covering stories by "series" (however vague the series was). The first episodes cover the stories set in Smith's region of Averoigne, an imaginary region of France during the Dark and Middle Ages.

The first batch of stories were enjoyable, but as this entry from The Double Shadow shows, the setting grew without much forethought and planning. I wonder what a fantasist such as Smith would do with more discipline?

The podcast has been using those tales that are easily found online, I've been using the collections published over the past several years by Night Shade Books (five volumes, plus a sixth of miscellaneous writings). I've also pulled out a collection of poetry, a collection of letters, and a couple of books of criticism and bibliography as reference (but probably won't dip into them for a bit).

Stories Read While Following the Podcast:The End of the Story (The Collected Fantasies 01):Introduction (Ramsey Campbell); The End of the Story; The Satyr; The Last Incantation. The Door to Saturn (The Collected Fantasies 02):Introduction (Tim Powers); A Rendezvous in Averoigne. A Vintage from Atlantis (The Collected Fantasies 03):Introduction (Michael Dirda); The Colossus of Ylourgne; The Maker of Gargoyles; The Holiness of Azedarac. The Maze of the Enchanter (The Collected Fantasies 04):Introduction (Gahan Wilson); The Mandrakes; The Beast of Averoigne; The Disinternment of Venus. The Last Hieroglyph (The Collected Fantasies 05):Introduction (Richard A. Lupoff); Mother of Toads; The Enchantress of Sylaire.

Made up of: Introduction (Ramsey Campbell); A Note on the Texts; To the Daemon; The Abominations of Yondo; Sadastor; The Ninth Skeleton; The Last Incantation; The End of the Story; The Phantoms of the Fire; A Night in Malnéant; The Resurrection of the Rattlesnake; Thirteen Phantasms; The Venus of Azombeii; The Tale of Satampra Zeiros; The Monster of the Prophecy; The Metamorphosis of the World; The Epiphany of Death; A Murder in the Fourth Dimension; The Devotee of Evil; The Satyr; The Planet of the Dead; The Uncharted Isle; Marooned in Andromeda; The Root of Ampoi; The Necromantic Tale; The Immeasurable Horror; A Voyage To Sfanomoë; Appendix One: Story Notes; Appendix Two: "The Satyr": Alternate Conclusion; Appendix Three: From the Crypts of Memory; Appendix Four: Bibliography.

Introduction (Tim Powers); A Note on the Texts; The Door to Saturn; The Red World of Polaris; Told in the Desert; The Willow Landscape; A Rendezvous in Averoigne; The Gorgon; An Offering to the Moon; The Kiss of Zoraida; The Face by the River; The Ghoul; The Kingdom of the Worm; An Adventure in Futurity; The Justice of the Elephant; The Return of the Sorcerer; The City of the Singing Flame; A Good Embalmer; The Testament of Athammaus; A Captivity in Serpens; The Letter from Mohaun Los; The Hunters from Beyond; Appendix One: Story Notes; Appendix Two: Alternate Ending to "The Return of the Sorcerer"; Appendix Three: Bibliography.

Introduction (Michael Dirda); A Note on the Texts; The Holiness of Azédarac; The Maker of Gargoyles; Beyond the Singing Flame; Seedling of Mars; The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis; The Eternal World; The Demon of the Flower; The Nameless Offspring; A Vintage from Atlantis; The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan; The Invisible City; The Immortals of Mercury; The Empire of the Necromancers; The Seed from the Sepulcher; The Second Interment; Ubbo-Sathla; The Double Shadow; The Plutonian Drug; The Supernumerary Corpse; The Colossus of Ylourgne; The God of the Asteroid; Appendix One: Story Notes; Appendix Two: The Flower-Devil; Appendix Three: Bibliography.

Introduction (Gahan Wilson); A Note on the Texts; The Mandrakes; The Beast of Averoigne; A Star-Change; The Disinterment of Venus; The White Sybil; The Ice Demon; The Isle of the Torturers; The Dimension of Chance; The Dweller in the Gulf; The Maze of the Enchanter; The Third Episode of Vathek—The Princess Zulkais and the Prince Kalilah; Genius Loci; The Secret of the Cairn; The Charnel God; The Dark Eidolon; The Voyage of King Euvoran; Vulthoom; The Weaver in the Vault; The Flower-Women; Appendix One; Appendix Two; Appendix Three; Appendix Four; Appendix Five.

Introduction (Richard A. Lupoff); A Note on the Texts; The Dark Age; The Death of Malygris; The Tomb-Spawn; The Witchcraft of Ulua; The Coming of the White Worm; The Seven Geases; The Chain of Aforgomon; The Primal City; Xeethra; The Last Hieroglyph; Necromancy in Naat; The Treader of the Dust; The Black Abbot of Puthuum; The Death of Ilalotha; Mother of Toads; The Garden of Adompha; The Great God Awto; Strange Shadows; The Enchantress of Sylaire; Double Cosmos; Nemesis of the Unfinished; The Master of the Crabs; Morthylla; Schizoid Creator; Monsters in the Night; Phoenix; The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles; Symposium of the Gorgon; The Dart of Rasasfa; Appendix One: Story Notes; Appendix Two: Variant Temptation Scenes from "The Witchcraft of Ulua"; Appendix Three: "The Traveler"; Appendix Four: Material Removed from "The Black Abbot of Puthuum"; Appendix Five: Alternate Ending to "I Am Your Shadow"; Appendix Six: Alternate Ending to "Nemesis of the Unfinished"; Appendix Seven: Bibliography.

Foreword (editors); The Sorcerer Departs (A Biography of Clark Ashton Smith; Some General Remarks on Smith's Poetry and Prose; The Sorcerer Departs; Afterword) (Donald Sidney-Fryer). Fragments and Early Tales by Clark Ashton Smith: The Animated Sword; The Red Turban; Prince Alcourz and the Magician; The Malay Krise; The Ghost of Mohammed Din; The Mahout; The Rajah and the Tiger; Something New; The Flirt; The Perfect Woman; A Platonic Entanglement; The Expert Lover; The Parrot; A Copy of Burns; Checkmate. The Infernal Star (Fragment of a Novel): Chapter 01—The Finding of the Amulet; Chapter 02—The Wearing of the Amulet; Chapter 03—"I am Avalzant, the Warden of the Fiery Change"; Chapter 04—The Passage to Pnidleethon. Dawn of Discord; House of the Monoceros; The Dead will Cuckold You; The Hashish-Eater—Or, The Apocalypse of Evil; Bibliography (editors); O Amor Atque Realitas! (Donald Sidney-Fryer).

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Mode of Operation

"Nine-tenths of tactics are certain, and taught in books: but the irrational tenth is like the kingfisher flashing across the pond and that is the test of generals. It can only be ensured by instinct, sharpened by thought practicing the stroke so often that at the crisis it is as natural as a reflex."

He showered, and for once climbed very early into bed, feeling that he must have nightmares. About strange sounds in the winds, over the mysterious thickets of Mars. Or about some blackened, dried-out body of a sentient being, sixty million years dead, floating free in the Asteroid Belt. A few had been found. Some were in museums

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is an odd looking one. The star R Sculptoris was recently examined using the recently built ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array). It was found to be surrounded by gas and dust moving out from the star in a spiral pattern. What is causing this?

Monday, October 15, 2012

Being Negative

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a very different look at a familiar thing. The Sun, inverted, against an inverted starfield. The solar image shows a lot of "surface" detail that we cannot normally see.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Deep Time

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a new version of a "classic", the latest generation in the "deep field" shots of the Hubble Space Telescope. From the Deep Field to the Ultra Deep Field to the (now) Extreme Deep Field.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Wide Swath

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a beautiful shot of three degrees (six times the width of the full Moon) of the sky towards the center of the Milky Way. Most astronomical instruments only cover a smaller portion of the sky, so a vista like this must be built up over many images. Producing stunning shots, such as this, is secondary for this instrument (Pan-STARRS), it is designed for "wide angle viewing" to hunt for potentially dangerous asteroids.

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Twisted Bubble

Yesterday we had one result of a star near the end of it's time on the main sequence, today we have a less symmetrical result. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows supernova remnant Simeis 147 in the constellations of Taurus and Auriga. Very faint (too faint for me!) and covering the span of six full moons in the evening sky (!).

Saturday, October 06, 2012

First Nebula

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a beautiful shot of M42, the Great Nebula of Orion. This is something I visit every time I see it in the night sky and is the first nebula I remember looking at (with a very shaky, over-priced and under-powered "department store" telescope).